Words don't come easy
by Soroka
Summary: Oblivious to Oingo and Boingo's antics, Jotaro heads for the hospital with a heavy heart and a head full of gloomy thoughts. Jotaro/Kakyoin if you squint really hard.


**(Drumroll) Well, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has officially stolen my heart and soul and you know what that means! Here, have some Jotaro and Kakyoin friendship fluff. Well, as much fluff as the show allows, anyway. **

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><p>As far as Jotaro was concerned his hatred of hospitals was perfectly reasonable.<p>

He could not recall any traumatic incidents in his life that would explain this aversion. When he was seven, he had overheard a classmate vividly explain a spinal tap he had to undergo during his holiday break but the details were so gory and exaggerated, that even then he was pretty sure the kid was making most of it up. It was as close as he had ever come to a horror story involving sterile white walls and people in lab coats and yet, as he walked down the narrow corridor he felt goosebumps spread over his arms and neck. There was something about this and every other hospital on earth that never failed to set him on edge. Perhaps it was the faint smell of antiseptic in the air that lingered on his clothes and hair for hours after leaving or the fact that everyone spoke in the same neutral tone. Maybe it was that, even here, under the scorching Egyptian sun, all the rooms felt cold as death with their buzzing halogen lights and neatly folded sheets on the cots. Each and every one of them seemed to scream "Next!" to Jotaro which always led to the inevitable question of what had happened to the previous person.

At least his mother was being treated in the comfort of her own home. When all this was over, she would be able to open her eyes in a familiar place.

Somewhere deep in the back of his mind Star Platinum stirred and tensed up, ready to manifest the very moment he called it forth. He dismissed it with an irritated grunt and glanced over the numbers over the doors, deciphering them as best as he could. Eastern Arabic numerals were not his strong point, especially when they were given to him in a heavy accent. Kakyoin's name had sounded like a series of disconnected syllables on the nurse's lips and she kept looking away while she was talking to him, her big dark eyes staring firmly at the floor. Jotaro was used to that kind of reaction; his ability to intimidate people with his mere presence was well known among his classmates and family but it also tended to get in the way at the worst possible moments. He had refrained from asking her anything and instead had just nodded silently and headed for the elevator, trying to ignore the frightened whispers behind his back.

"Come on, thirty-four…"

He walked along the wall, quietly counting off the numbers in his head. They ran in a pattern of evens on the left and odds on the right and he was pretty sure he had just passed twenty-eight. It was only when he reached thirty when he realized his palms were sweaty and his heart was beating a bit faster. An unexpected feeling of dread crept over him as he stared at the half-open door of Kakyoin's room only a few steps ahead. It was a stupid feeling, pointless and completely irrational but it was there anyway, gnawing at the back of his mind where Star Platinum roamed restlessly from side to side.

Maybe this was why he hated hospitals so much. It wasn't the threat of pain or the sickening smell of antiseptic or even their absurd smoking bans. It was the fear of bad news.

Somebody was whistling.

The sound was barely audible but in the dead silence of the deserted hallway it was hard to miss. It came from the room ahead of him, echoing down the hall like a ghost of a melody. Jotaro just stood there for a while, not sure what to make of it. Some of the rapidly dissolving notes tugged at his earliest memories of his father playing the saxophone and how the gentle sound carried through the entire house like a ripple. That was before he started disappearing for months on end until his mother became the only one to greet him when he came back from school. He wondered if his father even knew how close to dying she was.

For a second his mind flashed red with anger. He should have been here with them or at least back in Japan taking care of her along with the Speedwagon Foundation. Then again, he always seemed to be away during a crisis and conveniently back when it was already over. Family problems were things that happened to others but never him.

And then, there were people like Noriaki Kakyoin, people who were ready to join a life-threatening journey after knowing Jotaro and his mother for a day and a half.

He walked up to room thirty four and pushed the door open. The whistling stopped.

Inside, the room was striped by shadows as the midday sun streamed through the loosely pulled blinds. It was strangely empty apart from a flimsy cot flanked by two lone cupboards filled to the brim with medical supplies. Its only occupant sat perfectly still, as if in deep concentration or maybe, wondering why the sound of footsteps outside had vanished. Jotaro suppressed a smile as he recognized the bright green clothes still splattered with blood here and there. He could clearly imagine his classmate being offered a hospital gown and rejecting it outright. Kakyoin wore his uniform as a shield that nothing could touch. He was convinced that if he ripped it off, he would just find another one underneath.

"Jotaro?"

Kakyoin's voice sounded calm and steady but there was something in it that made Jotaro's stomach tie into knots. He moved forward and only then noticed a layer of surgical gauze wrapped tightly around the redhead's eyes. The discovery made his blood run cold as he recalled Abdul's grim warning in the desert. There was a very strong possibility of Kakyoin losing his eyesight and the pristine white bandage just seemed to confirm their fears.

"It's you, isn't it?"

The humorous tone of the question managed to snap him out of his gloomy thoughts. He stepped closer to the cot letting the door swing shut soundlessly behind him. "How did you know?"

He found his answer before he had finished asking. The familiar figure of Hierophant Green loomed behind his classmate's back, half hidden in the shadows. Its body had uncoiled itself almost all the way and now spread along the floor, mapping the entire room and part of the walls. When he moved one step closer, its upper body jerked to the side and slithered towards Jotaro, slatted, yellow eyes staring at him intently.

Kakyoin sighed and waved a hand calling the stand back. "I'm not used to seeing through his eyes yet, everything looks blurry." A smirk arose on his lips as he turned to face Jotaro. "Still, you've been standing there for five minutes without saying anything. Couldn't be anybody else."

Jotaro rolled his eyes, his action completely unnoticed by the stand that was now back behind his master, swaying gently like a cobra before a snakecharmer's flute. Kakyoin's lighthearted tone came as a relief, though he wasn't sure whether it was him being back to his usual self or the painkillers doing their job way too well. He decided to play it safe for the time being.

"Where are the others?" The redhead shifted in place as Hierophant's stony eyes peered at the door.

Jotaro shrugged. "Getting supplies in town, they should join us in about an hour. I just decided to come straight here."

"How so?"

Jotaro felt his mouth twitch at the corners. If someone had put a gun to his head he would have said that it was because he couldn't stand the heavy silence that fell over the group after they had left the hospital. Polnareff and his grandfather had exchanged some worried comments on their way back to town but eventually their chatter dwindled down and Jotaro found himself going mad. If things were dire enough to make Polnareff shut up, he could not just sip tea in a dusty coffee shop while time slowed down to a crawl around him.

Then again, he wasn't of much use here either. That was another reason for hating hospitals - they made him feel absolutely powerless.

He shrugged again and looked away from Hierophant's inquisitive gaze. "Who knows? I'm not sure myself."

"I see."

There was a brief moment of silence before Kakyoin's shoulders shook with silent laughter at his own unintended pun. Jotaro just continued to stare at him uncomfortably. He wasn't sure how to respond to that or what to say at all for that matter. Seeing his classmate awake and joking around was a welcome sight but silence had always been his best ally and old habits died hard. He suspected that everyone had a built-in script for situations like this that he somehow failed to get. It probably started with "How are you feeling?" or something along those lines.

"Have you gone to see Abdul?"

Thankfully Kakyoin seemed to be more than happy to carry the largest part of the conversation himself. Jotaro shook his head, took a quick glance at Hierophant's hollow expression and said, "Not yet."

Kakyoin nodded, his fingers tugging restlessly at the bandage around his eyes. "Never mind, you wouldn't have caught him anyway. He's on the second floor, getting his stitches removed. Apparently the blow glanced off his collarbone so he's going to be okay."

"Are you? Okay, that is?"

His question was met by an even more eager nod. "Yeah, my pupil wasn't damaged so it should all heal up soon. When I was in junior high a classmate took a baseball right in the eye and everyone freaked out but he was fine the next day."

Jotaro held back the sigh of relief swelling in this throat. He could feel Star Platinum slowly melting back into his consciousness and maybe Hierophant noticed since he stopped staring at him and tucked itself into a corner of the bed. Its long wide appendages twitched under Jotaro's shuffling feet. "Just like that? That thing nearly took your head off. If you had seen yourself back then…"

He trailed off as he noticed that Kakyoin didn't look that much better now. The desert sun had turned his face and neck a shade darker but even under the tan he still appeared pale and shaken. Before Jotaro could add anything else, Kakyoin shook his head vehemently and straightened up, his voice acquiring a reassuring tone.

"It looks worse than it is. I can take this thing off in a couple of days so I'll catch up with you guys then. You don't have to worry about me."

Jotaro paused to rub his creasing forehead. He had had enough time to run every worst case scenario in his head since no one in this godforsaken place would talk to him. Some of those scenarios eventually ran away from him, away from the hospital and Egypt and back to Japan, to the wide, bright room where his mother used to make tea for both of them, knowing full well that her son would never touch his. He had wondered what would happen if they didn't make it in time. Would the stand grow to accept his mother or would it rip her apart despite risking destruction itself? He had even wondered what would happen if he himself died on this trip and his grandfather ended up having to break the news to her.

The last possibility made him feel slightly sick. That was the worst possible outcome; worse than his mother dying, even worse than all of them perishing at Dio's hands. His father would probably grieve and move on but his mother would never be able to.

"I'm worried about mom." He wasn't aware he had said that out loud until his own voice echoed in the empty room. Kakyoin's polite smile grew a bit wider.

"She'd be happy to hear you say that."

Jotaro couldn't do much else but sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Yeah well, don't tell her. I'd never hear the end of it."

There was a quiet nod from his classmate followed by silence and Hierophant Green's restless shifting. Kakyoin's fingers drummed nervously on the folded sheets, his muscles tense under the blood splattered uniform. Jotaro watched him chew on his lip, growing more uncomfortable by the second. Small talk was another one of those situations he'd missed the script for and Kakyoin was not helping him out this time. He was ready to call it quits and walk away but the redhead's next words stopped him in his tracks.

"I'm sorry."

The sheer unexpected sincerity threw Jotaro's mind completely off the rails. He whipped around as if punched by an invisible foe and stared at his classmate, trying his best to avoid Hierophant's sightless eyes. Kakyoin must have sensed the unspoken question hanging in the air and continued, "For delaying us, I mean. I heard one of the pilots who brought Iggy talking to Mr. Joestar, I know how little time we have."

Jotaro held back a long, incredulous sigh. Of all the words he was expecting to hear today, those were not even on the list and he absolutely didn't not want to deal with them. The most genuine apologies ever delivered to him were whimpered quietly in between screams of pain so this was unexplored territory. Besides, it made no sense. Kakyoin would have had a better chance to drag the moon from the sky than to avoid N'Doul's attack back then. They all knew that, except, apparently, Kakyoin himself.

He slid a palm over his face and let out a short exasperated grunt. "Give me a break, if that Stand had moved a bit to the left it would be Polnareff sitting on this bed. How would that be any different?"

"Would you be here then?"

There was the slightest bit of hesitation in Kakyoin's voice but it was enough to make Jotaro's mind unravel. If there was an answer to that question, he didn't want to deal with it either. As if in response to his sudden internal turmoil, his stand stirred again, tense like a toy on a spring.

He pushed it into the back of his mind before replying, "How is that important?"

"I guess it's not." Kakyoin shrugged and tugged at his bandage again, freeing some loose strands of reddish hair. "Anyway, like I said, I'll catch up with you once my eyes are recovered, shouldn't take longer than a week." Hierophant's coiled body slithered across the room, seeking Jotaro's eyes. "Jotaro?"

He stepped forward, meeting the green stand's unfocused gaze. "Yeah?"

"We'll definitely get there in time and get Mrs. Holly healthy again, I swear."

Jotaro chuckled half-heartedly. He refused to understand how his classmate's mind functioned even before the fleshbud but he was sure that the earnest tone in his voice was nothing but genuine. The realization didn't make anything less clear though. There had been times at the start of their journey when he lay awake at night, wondering if they had done the right thing by allowing him to come along. For all they knew, he could still be under Dio's influence. No one would be stupid enough to risk his life for someone they barely knew.

Except maybe that one time when Jotaro risked his to pull that fleshbud out of Kakyoin's brain.

He gave a curt nod in Hierophant's direction and yanked off his hat, running his fingers though knotted hair. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't you have parents of your own? You should worry about them for a change."

He heard Kakyoin sigh and call Hierophant to his side, letting it coil around him. "I do, every day."

For the first time since they had set off Jotaro wondered what had the redhead's explanation been for disappearing so suddenly. He considered asking him directly but his mind changed tracks at the very last moment as he muttered. "Good, because I'm not telling them you're dead."

Hierophant's blank eyes narrowed in mild confusion. Its master just let out a small, amused laugh. "I'm not dead, Jojo."

Jotaro's eyebrows twitched slightly at the mention of his nickname. As far as he was concerned, his mother was the only one allowed to use it and mostly because there was no way to stop her. Occasionally, the accursed pet name slipped his grandfather's lips as well, earning him a death glare but nothing more. Whether he liked it or not, it painted an invisible line that only a select group of people were allowed to cross without a punch in the face. He hadn't even noticed that group growing a bit larger in their month and a half of traveling; there was no time to pay attention to such details. He wondered what it would be like when they got back to Japan.

He cleared his throat, keeping his eyes on the green stand, mostly to avoid looking and its user. "Then do me a favor and stay that way; the others are worried enough." He peered through the pulled blinds at the sun-flooded street. "I should probably be waiting for them outside. This place is easy to get lost in."

"Don't let me keep you then. I think whatever they gave me is finally kicking in."

Kakyoin's words came out a bit slurred. Jotaro watched him closely as he leaned against the pillows piled up behind him, dragging Hierophant Green along. He sounded completely drained and the fact made him realize how tired he was himself. He looked at the sun, still high in the cloudless sky and closed his eyes, letting the darkness behind his eyelids soothe him. It had been an incredibly long day and it was nowhere near over. For a second, he considered staying and letting Polnareff and the old man find them on their own. People found those two less scary, kind of funny, even, when in the right mood.

Considering the circumstances, they would definitely not be in that mood.

He groaned in resignation and shook his head, trying to fight the drowsiness creeping over him. His eyes had gotten used to the half-darkness in the room and the perspective of facing the bright light outside was not pleasant. He turned to his classmate, now fully spread on the bed, his bandaged eyes facing the ceiling. He felt a sting of envy at the sight. At least that bastard would be able to sleep in a decent bed while the rest of them had to move on shortly.

"Kakyoin?"

Hierophant's head snapped up as his master stirred against the pillows. "Hhm?"

"What happened in Egypt back then?"

The question came out on autopilot, bypassing every filter and surprising even Jotaro himself. He could not deny that it had been on his mind for a long time but his recent encounter with N'Doul made it hard to ignore any longer. The memory of the lone shallow grave in the sand still haunted him as did N'Doul's decision to kill himself before Dio got to him. Jotaro had called him a fanatic back in the desert but the word sounded wrong now. There was no fanatic devotion in those empty eyes, only limitless awe and fear.

Kakyoin frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Jotaro watched Kakyoin's eyebrows furrow over the white gauze as his relaxed expression faltered. For a second, he felt guilty about asking him that question while he was out of it from painkillers but it was too late to take anything back so he pressed on. "Four months ago when you first met Dio. What happened back then?"

Kakyoin ran a pale hand over his face as his stand's impassive stare darkened. "Nothing, he challenged me to a fight and I lost way too quickly for my liking. That's the short version anyway."

"What about the long one?"

Kakyoin must have sensed something in his tone since he struggled to sit up, turning towards the sound of his voice. "The long one is that he wanted to see what my stand could do so I agreed. Then things got really ugly really fast." He paused, as if gathering his thoughts. "I guess I should have seen through his trap then but I just couldn't walk away."

The bitterness in his classmate's last words made Jotaro's mouth twist. He had a feeling that things would have not turned out much different if he had. Still, he asked, "Why not? Abdul did. In fact, he ran like hell."

For a while, the room was silent except for the faint drumming of fingers on the mattress. When Kakyoin spoke up again, his voice was quiet but steady. "Have you had your stand since birth?"

Jotaro shook his head. Star Platinum's arrival had been as much as surprise for him as for everyone else. He had assumed it had been the same for everyone else until meeting other stand users proved him otherwise.

Kakyoin sank back into the pillows and went on. "Hierophant awakened when I was a still a child but nobody could see it except me. The adults never believed me and the kids thought I was crazy so I just stopped bringing it up. Let me tell you, that opened up a whole world of possibilities."

He trailed off, his lips curved in a nostalgic smile. Jotaro's lips spread in a sarcastic grin. "I never pictured you as the law breaking type."

"I wasn't!" Kakyoin's half-slurred denial was suspiciously quick leaving Jotaro sneering. "To be honest, I was too scared that someone would see me abusing my power and drag me to stand jail or something. That was when Dio showed up. He said that if I proved myself worthy, I would have a place to belong. He promised me friends…"

His voice began to fade again as his fingers slowly stopped their tapping. In Jotaro's mind, Star Platinum ground its invisible teeth, simmering in rage as the conversation with a dying N'Doul replayed in his head. He knew how skilled Dio was at manipulating people, he had seen the results first hand with Polnareff and yet hearing the same longing echo again cut though him like a knife. Whatever Dio's stand was, it could not be more dangerous than his power to identify what people needed and then becoming that very thing.

"That wasn't the first promise he broke", he growled under his breath.

"It's the first one he kept."

Any reply Jotaro could have had, died in his throat as his mouth clasped shut. Yellow eyes caught his stunned expression but Kakyoin's face remained impassive. When he was able to speak again, all that came out was an awkward laugh. "What the hell did they give you?"

Kakyoin shrugged imperceptibly and settled deeper into the pillows, his voice growing muzzier by the second. "Don't know, didn't ask. It's probably prescription only so I'm not sharing."

"Right…" He fell silent, writing his own script for this particular moment. After a few fumbled attempts, he gave up and turned away from his classmate to face the sunshine creeping through the windowpane. "You should sleep while you can, these guys will be here in half an hour. This will get a lot less quiet then."

Kakyoin yawned. "Set them loose on Abdul, he's used to it."

Jotaro's eyes rolled at the memory of Polnareff's reaction after finding out their Egyptian friend was alive after all. "That should buy you fifteen minutes at least."

"I'll take them."

The words barely reached Jotaro's ears as the redhead's voice descended into a mutter. Hierophant Green's reflection in the glass wavered like a mirage and vanished into thin air. For a good two minutes, Jotaro remained where he stood, staring at the arid landscape with blank eyes, listening to the deep, even breathing behind him. Eventually, he turned around and pulled his hat deep over his eyes before walking out of the room and into the blinding light.

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><p><strong>I love having a new fandom, even if it breaks my heart from time to time. Your comments and criticism are very much appreciated. They help deal with the pain. You guys who finished Stardust Crusaders get me. <strong>


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